TRESPASS

US, 1992, 101 minutes, Colour.
Bill Paxton, Ice -T, William Sadler, Ice Cub, Art Evans.
Directed by Walter Hill.

This is tough stuff. Director Walter Hill is noted for it (48 Hours, The Warriors, Southern Comfort). But he does it well.

Here he challenges himself and the audience by confining the action to the interior of an abandoned warehouse where two firemen go to find some valuable hidden statues – but it is the headquarters for a black drug dealing gang. An old black drifter also makes it his home.

The action shows each group trying to outwit the other. While the action and language is strong, the confrontation becomes a parable about greed and survival, a reworking of the old Humphrey Bogart classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. What does it profit …? It should give the action fans something to think about.

1.An interesting action drama? The action? The parable about greed? Meaning?

2.The limited locations, the exteriors? The warehouse? The detail of the interiors? The surrounding buildings? Atmosphere? Musical score?

3.The title, the religious overtones of sin and trespass? Being illegally on property, trespassing? The both meanings here?

4.The plausibility of the plot: the fire, the dead man and his religiosity, his message? The response of the firemen? The black gang, the drugs, the execution? The two groups intertwining? The drifter, his home? His becoming involved? The significance of the gold, greed, the fight for it, survival? The irony of the deaths? Destruction? Bradlee as the drifter, his confrontation of the groups, his wiliness with Vince, his keeping the gold at the end?

5.Vince and Don, their work, the rescues? The old man and his religious mania, dying? His information about the gold, the church? Their going back, discovering the map? Misreading it – but finding the gold in the roof? The possibilities for their future? Their moral stances, the claims for the gold, it being in the public domain after being stolen fifty years earlier?

6.The black gang, King James, his being in charge, Savon as his assistant, the other members of the gang, their personalities? King James and his concern about his brother, Lucky? The deals, going to the warehouse, their territory? The execution? Vince watching it?

7.The build-up to the confrontation between the two groups, using their wits? The chases, the violence, the physical contact, the guns? Each outwitting the other? Don and his taking Lucky as a hostage? King James backing down? Savon not backing down? The group calling in reinforcements, especially Raymond, his weapons?

8.Vince and Don, the encounter with Bradlee? Bradlee and his demands? The hanging on to the gold, the admiration of the vessels? Savon and his being aware of the gold? Lucky and his reaction? His threats against the two?

9.The confrontations, Don, his death? Vince, on the roof, the chases? His surviving? The final words with Bradlee – and Bradlee sending him off?

10.Lucky, King James, the deaths? The brutality of the fights?

11.The irony of Bradlee taking the gold? The old theme of what does it profit to gain the whole world …?